Thursday, July 7, 2016

I don't mean the short, running between gates hoping not to miss your flight kinds. I mean a good long layover that gives you a chance to explore a place that you wouldn't likely have been going to otherwise. Even the shorter several hour layovers are nice because you get to eat some cool regional foods sometimes.

On my (not so) recent trip to Bali, I arranged for two ridiculously long layovers in Singapore. One for the daytime and one for the evening which required a hotel room for a night. It was amazing. We got to see just about all of the attractions in Singapore and explore a city that we likely wouldn't have gone to otherwise. Singapore is beautiful and fun, has some delicious food, and was a really great place to revisit since I hadn't been back since I was three.

Layover Musings

1. A good long layover is cheaper than paying for additional flight legs to get you there. The cost of our 17 hour and 19 hour layovers was built into the cost of the flight. This amount of time enabled us to have breakfast with orangutans at the Singapore Zoo, visit the Singapore Flyer, and Gardens By the Bay. Oh, and eat lots and lots of chicken rice.

2. A long layover is under 24 hours and because of that, if you are flying the same airline all the way through, you most likely won't have to recheck your bags. As long as you have checked them for the entire flight, you are set. So just keep some pajamas in your carry-on!

3. I typically will get a hotel close to the airport if I have to catch an early flight the next morning so after I get off one flight, I check-in and leave my bags at the hotel to make things easier for later. The airport hotels are usually quite a bit cheaper than those downtown so it's a win win!

For an upcoming trip I'm planning, I have two long layovers in a nearby Asian country which will give me ample time to see a couple tourist attractions and catch a few night markets. I absolutely cannot wait!